How to Clear the Air, Literally, in Your Home

In the era of coronavirus and social distancing, we’re all cooped up in our homes, battling anxieties about the invisible dangers in the air. Might as well do something about it, as least as far as the air in your place is concerned.

Read More

3 things to avoid if you want to keep your carpets mold-free

In a study recently published in the journal Building and Environment, a research team from The Ohio State University’s Indoor Environmental Quality Laboratory found that carpets with higher concentrations of dust were more likely to grow mold than those with lower concentrations.

The team also found that fungi burrowed into the fibers of rugs made from natural materials, such as wool. (The mold the researchers found is fungal growth.)

Read More

What’s in the air at home? Scientists reveal a whole new world of chemistry by stepping indoors.

Colorado State University atmospheric chemist Delphine Farmer had spent her entire career probing the complexities of outdoor air – how gases and particles in the atmosphere move, interact and change, and how human activities perturb the air we breathe.

Read More

52 Ways to Detox Your Home and Live Healthier This Year

In June 2018, researchers from nine universities converged on one 1,200-square-foot manufactured home in Austin, Texas. They cooked and cleaned—not for their health, but for yours, as part of the HOMEChem (House Observations of Microbial and Environmental Chemistry) experiment, which aims to find out how everyday activities affect the quality of the air your family breathes. In particular, they looked at oxidants; volatile organic compounds, or VOCs; and particulate matter, all of which may have negative impacts on human systems. They’re still analyzing the data, but in the meantime, we caught up with Marina Vance, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder who participated in the study, to chat about what she’s learned—and what it means for you.

Read More

Indoor chemical pollution impacts often remain invisible

Furniture, flooring, construction materials, and humans and their habits are just some sources of the thousands of particles and gases that surround people living indoors. As scientists collect increasingly sophisticated data on the chemistry of the indoor environment, policy-makers and industry leaders are seeking more information on how to apply these findings to buildings and homes, experts said at an American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium.

Read More

How About Some Air Pollution With That Thanksgiving Meal?

For many in the USA, this week’s Thanksgiving will be a time of coming together as a family – eating great food, cooking and cleaning – and, very possibly being exposed to unhealthy air at home.

Read More

Chemists move indoors to measure the air quality in our homes

Atmospheric chemists have spent decades upon decades focused on understanding the quality of outdoor air. But given the lopsided ratio of time humans spend indoors versus outdoors, some of these researchers are shifting their attention. They want to use the tools they’ve developed for monitoring outdoor air and start making the same sorts of measurements inside.

Read More

Sloan Foundation 2018 Annual Report

“Preliminary data suggest that the chemistry of indoor air is every bit as complex and dynamic as outdoor air, that it can change radically in short timeframes, that it can be much dirtier than we previously expected, and that human activities are major players in the indoor chemistry of a home.”

Read More

Take a deep breath? Investigating indoor air pollution

New studies are uncovering how emissions from daily household activities pollute the air we breathe at home.

Ages: 11-14, 14-16, 16-19

Read More